Synopses & Reviews
In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people.
Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland.
Black Potatoes is the compelling story of men, women, and children who defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds to eat, who walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs for meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and who committed crimes just to be sent to jail, where they were assured of a meal. Its the story of children and adults who suffered from starvation, disease, and the loss of family and friends, as well as those who died. Illustrated with black and white engravings, its also the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope.
Review
"Bartoletti humanizes the big events by bringing the readers up close to the lives of ordinary people." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
“Bartoletti incorporates period pen-and-ink sketches and poetry laying bare the fragility, injustice, and stratification of Irish peasant society. . . . Fascinating historical reading.” —School Library Journal, starred review School Library Journal, Starred
Review
Bartoletti has written a concise, thoroughly researched account of the often grim working and living conditions in Pennsylvania coal towns. An accessible writing style, as well as the abundance of stimulating information, makes for an engrossing historical account. Quotes from personal interviews with miners, as well as taped interviews and transcripts, provide a refreshing first person frame of reference. Horn Book
With compelling black-and-white photographs of children at work in the coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania about 100 years ago, this handsome, spacious photo-essay will draw browsers as well as students doing research on labor and immigrant history. The story of these boys' lives are a part of Russell Freedman's general overview Kids at Work (1994) and of Betsy Harvey Kraft's biography Mother Jones (1995); but there's a wealth of personal detail and family story here that focuses on what it was like in the mines and in the homes and communities of these working children. Lewis Hines' famous pictures will grab readers, and Bartoletti has also gathered dozens of archival photos and heartbreaking oral histories. They show what it was like for eight-year-old breaker boys sorting coal surrounded by deafening noise and black clouds of dust, steam, and smoke; what it was like to be a mule driver underground; what it meant to be a spragger, a butty, a nipper. Drawing on personal interviews, archival tapes and transcripts, and a wide range of historical resources, Bartoletti finds heartfelt memories of long hours, hard labor, and extremely dangerous working conditions, as well as lighter accounts of spirited rebellion, mischief, and bonding. The immigrant experience is an integral part of this "coal culture": the strength of ethnic groups and the prejudice against them, and their banding together to form strong labor unions. As with most fine juvenile nonfiction, this will also have great appeal for adults.
Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
Bartoletti uses oral history, archival documents, and an abundance of black-and-white photographs to make turn-of-the-century mining life a surprisingly compelling subject for today's young people.
School Library Journal, Starred
Review
Throughout much of the nation's history, young people were forced by necessity into the labor market. This book focuses on children and teenagers who endured unbearably long working days, dangerous job responsibilities, and paltry wages, yet were empowered by their quest for civil rights. Each chapter recounts an important labor battle of the nineteenth or early twentieth century and explores the role that children played in it. Some protests, including the mill girls' strike for higher wages in 1836 New England and the New York City rent protest led by sixteen-year-old Pauline Newman, were organized by young people. Others, such as the turn-of-the-century Pennsylvania coal strikes, were initiated by adult workers, although children also participated. The well-designed book, liberally illustrated with black-and-white archival photographs, documents these events through the experiences of specific children profiled in the lean, compelling text. The book is honest in describing not only the strikes that ended in success but also those that failed or resulted in limited victories. The final chapter surveys the development of the National Child Labor Committee and briefly touches on the plight of African-American child laborers (who frequently worked for no pay at all) and the pioneering art of Lewis Hine, whose photographs of child workers brought the issue before the American public. Finally, it includes information on the later life experiences of many of the children discussed in the text. As memorable as their inspiring stories are, they represent just a few of the children who worked and battled for better lives. The anonymous children depicted in the photographs-older than their years, dirty, sometimes maimed by factory machinery-are equally haunting and affecting. Bibliographical references, an index, and a helpful "Timeline of Federal Child Labor Laws" are included.
Horn Book
"A comprehensive examination of the socioeconomic factors that spurred the formation of child organized strikes, this historical tour de force elucidates why child labor laws were developed and continue to be such a necessity. Bartoletti (No Man's Land, p. 627, etc.) looks at the major industries that profited from the exploitation of child labor and how those employed by such operations worked to create a better environment for themselves and others. While there is mention of the Newsie Strike' in New York City and the fate of the sharecroppers in the southern cotton industry, the garment and coal mining industries loom as the real villains in child labor issues. Bartoletti provides numerous examples of how debilitating poverty drove entire families to work in utter squalor and suffer cruel treatment at the hands of profit-driven conglomerates. Personal stories illuminate the wretched conditions under which many of these children labored, with a focus on the instances when a child mobilized fellow workers to demand their rights. The grit and determination of these children who, in the face of police abuse, bureaucratic negligence, and governmental (even presidential) indifference, banded together for a common cause, and the startling black-and-white photographs, ensure that readers will be alternately awed and appalled by this stunning account of child labor in the US." Kirkus Reviews
"Through personal narratives and powerful photographs and reproductions, this book tells the dynamic story of child labor in America and the efforts to organize to achieve social justice." School Library Journal
Review
* andquot;Bartoletti tells the womanandrsquo;s story with empathy and understanding [and] explores the myriad violations of Mallonandrsquo;s civil rights and her unusually harsh treatment in comparison to other healthy typhoid carriers. Energetic, even charming prose will easily engage readers.andquot;
andmdash;School Library Journal, starred review
* andquot;Expertly weaving together both historical background and contemporary knowledge about disease and public health, Bartoletti enlivens Mallonand#39;s story with engrossing anecdotes and provocative critical inquiry while debunking misconceptions.andquot;
andmdash;Booklist, starred review
andquot;[A] thoroughly researched biography.andquot;
andmdash;Publishers Weekly
* andquot;Bartoletti skillfully weaves the answers into the beginning of the story, before moving on to Soperand#39;s cat-and-mouse game of tracking Mary down and then keeping her quarantined for most of the rest of her life...excellent nonfiction.andquot;
andmdash;Horn Book Magazine, starred review
andquot;A very comprehensive and engaging account of the sad life story of Mary Mallon.andquot;
andmdash;VOYA
and#160;
Review
"In this accomplished work of picture book nonfiction, Bartoletti explores a hallowed event in U.S. history: the British attack of Fort McHenry in 1813 and the celebrated resilience of its garrison flag... The book's resonance owes as much to the delicate watercolors as to Bartoletti's controlled storytelling." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review
As inspiring as it is elegantly turned out, this will add unusual dimension to a famous episode in our national story.
Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
In a riveting biography that reads like a crime novel,and#160;Sibert Medalist and Newbery-Honor winner Susan Campbell Bartoletti uncovers the true story of Mary Mallon,and#160;a.k.a. Typhoid Mary, one of the most notorious and misunderstood women in American history.
Synopsis
What happens when a personand#39;s reputation has been forever damaged? With archival photographs and text among other primary sources, this riveting biography of Mary Mallon by the Sibert medalist and Newbery Honor winner Susan Bartoletti looks beyond the tabloid scandal of Maryand#39;s controversial life. How she was treated by medical and legal officials reveals a lesser-known story of human and constitutional rights, entangled with the science of pathology and enduring questions about who Mary Mallon really was. How did her name become synonymous with deadly disease? And who is really responsible for the lasting legacy of Typhoid Mary? This thorough exploration includes an authorand#39;s note, timeline, annotated source notes, and bibliography.
Synopsis
Through interviews, newspaper accounts, and other original sources, Bartoletti pieced together a picture of life in the Pennsylvania coal mines at the turn of the century.
Synopsis
Kids on Strike! tells the story of children who stood up for their rights against powerful company owners, from a "turn-out" in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1836 led by eleven-year-old Harriet Hanson to the dramatic strike of 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. By the early 1900s nearly two million children were in the United States work force. Their tiny fingers, strong eyesight, and boundless energy made them perfect employees. But after years and years of working long hours every day under harsh and inhumane conditions, children began to organize and make demands in order to protect themselves. They fought for better wages, fairer housing costs, and safer working environments. Susan Campbell Bartoletti tells of labor strikes led by young people throughout the United States. Illustrated with more than one hundred photographs from newspapers and journals as well as with the work of photographer Lewis Hine, this book provides an inside look at the individual and gripping events that shaped t
Synopsis
Here in lyrical prose is the story of the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words that became the national anthem of the United States. This flag, which came to be known as the Star-Spangled Banner, also inspired author Susan Campbell Bartoletti, who, upon seeing it at the Smithsonian Institution, became curious about the hands that had sewn it.
Here is her story of the early days of this flag as seen through the eyes of young Caroline Pickersgill, the daughter of an important flag maker, Mary Pickersgill, and the granddaughter of a flag maker for General George Washingtonand#8217;s Continental Army. It is also a story about how a symbol motivates action and emotion, brings people together, and inspires courage and hope.
About the Author
Susan Campbell Bartoletti is the award-winning author of several books for young readers, including Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 18451850, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Medal. She lives in Moscow, Pennsylvania.